Convert AST to WAT

WAT is 5 hours ahead of AST. AST is UTC−4 and WAT is UTC+1.

Which AST is this?

AST names more than one zone. This page reads it as Atlantic Standard Time at UTC−4, which is the reading most converters take. There is one other: Arabia Standard Time at UTC+3, used in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Yemen.

The letters on a meeting invitation do not say which one is meant. If yours is not Atlantic Standard Time, the answer above is wrong, and not by a little:

The large converter sites disagree about this as well: search for a AST conversion and some of the results answer for one reading and some for another, none of them saying which they chose. Where it matters, ask which country the sender is in rather than which letters they typed.

Best time to schedule a meeting

Standard 9–5 working hours overlap for 3 hours: 9:00 AM–12:00 PM AST (2:00 PM–5:00 PM WAT). Schedule meetings inside that window.

AST to WAT conversion table

About AST

Atlantic Standard Time (AST) is UTC−4. It is used in Halifax, Puerto Rico and the eastern Caribbean in winter.

Atlantic Standard Time is UTC−4, one hour ahead of Eastern. It covers Canada's Atlantic provinces, Puerto Rico and much of the eastern Caribbean, and it is the reason a call from Halifax to Toronto is an hour out from what either party expects. The abbreviation is also used for Arabia Standard Time at UTC+3, seven hours away in the other direction, which is a genuinely dangerous collision in scheduling.

About WAT

West Africa Time (WAT) is UTC+1. It is used in Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola and much of central and western Africa.

West Africa Time is UTC+1 all year, with no daylight saving anywhere that uses it. It covers Lagos, Kinshasa and Luanda — a very large population on a single fixed offset. It matches Central European Time in winter and falls an hour behind it in summer, which means a standing Europe–Nigeria meeting moves twice a year at the European end and never at the African one.

Does this gap change with the seasons?

Neither AST nor WAT shifts with the seasons, so this 5-hour difference holds all year. That is unusual enough to be worth relying on: most cross-continental gaps move twice a year.

This is the reason scheduling systems store an IANA zone such as Region/City rather than an offset or an abbreviation: the zone knows its own rules and the offset does not.

Frequently asked questions

Other AST conversions

• AST to UTC
• AST to GMT
• AST to EST
• AST to CST
• AST to CDT
• AST to MST
• AST to MDT
• AST to PST
• AST to PDT
• AST to AKST
• AST to HST
• AST to BRT
• AST to BST
• AST to CET
• AST to CEST
• AST to EET

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